1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a device having a television broadcast receiving function, such as a digital television receiver, a personal computer, and a mobile phone, and to a system for providing information to a device having a television broadcast receiving function.
2. Background of the Related Art
As one method for easily selecting a television program to be recorded when conducting a preprogrammed recording of a television program, a method which utilizes G-code® is known. A G-code® is a kind of program identification information which makes it possible to uniquely identify a program, and is a code represented by a number of eight digits or less. The eight digits or less are obtained by compressing and encoding a date, a channel, a start time of a program, and a length of the program, which are required to conduct a preprogrammed recording.
The application of G-code® is, at present, almost limited to preprogrammed recording in a video device. As another application, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2002-354445 discloses an information providing system for providing program-related information related to a television program, utilizing G-code®.
FIG. 17 is a diagram illustrating the structure of the information providing system disclosed in the above publication. In the system illustrated in FIG. 17, a terminal device 1701 for a user, a terminal device 1702 for an information provider, and administration equipment 1703 are interconnected via a communication network 1704. The information provider associates program identification information such as G-code® with program-related information to be provided to a user, and inputs them to the terminal device 1702 for an information provider. The inputted program identification information and program-related information are transmitted from the terminal device 1702 for an information provider to the administration equipment 1703 and accumulated in a database in the administration equipment 1703, while maintaining the association.
When a user desires to acquire program-related information related to a certain television program, he or she inputs the program identification information of the television program to the terminal device 1701. The inputted program identification information is transmitted from the terminal device 1701 to the administration equipment 1703. When the administration equipment 1703 receives the program identification information, it reads program-related information corresponding to the received program identification information from the database and transmits the read program-related information to the terminal device 1701. The terminal device 1701 displays, on a display screen, the program-related information received from the administration equipment 1703. Thus, the user can be provided with the program-related information related to the television program.
However, the above-described conventional system for providing information has the following problems. First, in this system, it is necessary for a user to input program identification information such as G-code®, while referring to a program list which is published in a newspaper, a magazine, and/or the like. Because of this, this system has a problem of obliging a user to carry out a troublesome operation. Moreover, this system has a problem in that it is necessary to additionally provide administration equipment which associates program identification information with program-related information and stores them. Furthermore, this system has a problem in that the user cannot see whether or not any program-related information corresponding to the program identification information exists until he or she inputs the program identification information and receives a result transmitted from the administration equipment.
Therefore, an object of the present invention is to (i) provide a television receiver which allows a user to easily select a television program whose program-related information is to be acquired, and (ii) allow the user to know whether any program-related information related to the television program exists or not before selecting the television program, and a system including the same.